choke up

phrasal verb

choked up; choking up; chokes up

: to have trouble talking because of crying or strong emotion

He chokes up whenever he tries to talk about the accident.

baseball : to move one's hands to a higher position on a baseball bat

—often + on

He choked up on the bat and took a short swing.

Examples of choke up in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Hugh got very choked up and repeated a line after me, and that ended up defining the tone of that scene. —

Nick Romano, EW.com, 5 Aug. 2024 In January, Ford got choked up while accepting the career achievement award from the Critics Choice Association. —

Angelique Jackson, Variety, 12 Aug. 2024 Toward the end of his Thursday interview with Kay/DLG, Lyons got all choked up while thanking his co-workers. —

Bob Raissman, New York Daily News, 10 Aug. 2024 Loading your audio article SAN JOSE — Stacey Andrade King was so choked up that her youngest daughter stepped up to the microphone in a Santa Clara County courtroom to read her prepared remarks about the prospect of resentencing the man who murdered King’s mother. —

Robert Salonga, The Mercury News, 10 Aug. 2024 See all Example Sentences for choke up

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'choke up.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.